All of Me: A Holiday Bites Novel

by Heather Young-Nichols

That wasn’t going to be good enough for me.

  I snagged an arm around her waist and pulled her to me to give her the kiss I’d really wanted to. Dad had the decency to busy himself with the chairs, which we’d already taken care of, and when Killian didn’t immediately do the same, to give us privacy, Dad gave him a good yank.

  Letting Luna go went against everything my body demanded. I’d even considered having Dad drive my car home just so I could ride with her. He’d come with Killian. But I refrained.

  Soon I’d be spending the rest of my life with her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Luna

  It’d been a moment of sappy need that had caused me to drive out to the winery, where I’d known Harrison had been taking care of some things with his dad and brother. I’d seen the dress. I’d put it on and I almost lost it in the shop. The jacket that they’d made for me was amazing and it looked like it was meant to be with the dress all along.

  I needed to see him then. Though part of my brain should’ve thought it out and realized that little scene in my head would be played out in front of most of his family. Jim didn’t seem to care, but Killian always had a suspicious look in his eyes.

  If I never figured out why that was, it’d probably be for the best.

  On the plus side, that had happened on Monday night. A night the restaurant was closed because I didn’t know if I could’ve controlled myself enough to not drive straight to The Bell Jar if he’d been working. That would’ve been terrible.

  I thought of what that might’ve looked like as I walked to the front desk to get my sheet from Jessica on Wednesday and didn’t like the scene that played out in my head.

  “Here ya go.” Jess handed me a sheet. Lots of spas or massage therapists didn’t use these old sheets anymore, but I liked to have a printout of my day in front of me so I knew how to prep the room after each client. The sanitizing was the same, but the prep might not have been.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Jess held her hand up. “I didn’t make that appointment. It was one of the others. I don’t know who. I just saw it when I printed it. If I would’ve taken the call you know I would’ve put him in with someone else.”

  I wasn’t mad at her. I wasn’t mad at all. I was just taken by surprise.

  “How in the hell am I going to massage Killian? He’s Harrison’s brother.”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” She hopped up from her seat and got close to me then wiggled her body suggestively. “Just rub him everywhere.”

  I giggled, then she joined in. It would’ve looked ridiculous to anyone around us but right now the lobby was empty aside from the two of us.

  “Look,” she said more seriously. “You’ve rubbed down lots of guy's bits. This will be no different.”

  My eyes widened. “I’m not rubbing any of Killian’s bits. Don’t be gross.”

  “For real? If you think he’s gross, you’ve got something wrong with you.”

  “I mean—”

  “Yeah. I know what you mean. But he’s important to Harrison and you’re important to Harrison. Killian hasn’t done anything out of step recently, right?” she asked. I shook my head. Not really, I supposed. “See? He’s probably here to make nice.”

  The front door opened then closed as Killian came through it.

  “So make nice,” she said much more quietly.

  She wasn’t wrong. So I plastered on a fake smile and greeted him then led him down to my room. As much as I wanted to run and hide, I told him what to do like I did with every other person I massaged. Then I gave him a moment.

  When I thought he was done, I knocked lightly and opened the door.

  Killian lay on the table on his stomach without his shirt. He was broad and muscular like his brother. Actually, Killian was hot. There was no reason he shouldn’t have had a steady girlfriend other than the fact that he didn’t want one and maybe tended to have a bad attitude but that could’ve just been with me. I hadn’t witnessed him in many groups without him knowing to compare his behavior with how he was with me.

  “How are you?” I asked with my hushed tone as I lotioned up my hands.

  “Fine.” But he didn’t elaborate.

  As I began with slight pressure—I’d increase as we went—I told him to let me know if it became too much. He snorted. Damn. He wasn’t making this easy.

  Having my hands-on Killian was awkward as hell. There was no world in which I should’ve been touching him this way, but I was a professional and wouldn’t let that get in the way. But his one-word answers were making it so much worse. Like he was doing it on purpose, though I couldn’t figure out what the endgame would be.

  We continued like that for the full thirty minutes. I’d ask a question and he’d grunt out an answer. He didn’t offer a single thing up.

  It sucked and was the longest thirty minutes of my life.

  When my timer buzzed, I finished up and asked how he felt.

  “Good.”

  This man was frustrating. Grunting out one-word answers wasn’t my idea of communicating.

  “I’ll step out so you can get dress.”

  “You don’t have to.” For the first time, he’d spoken more than one word. “It’s just a shirt.”

  Well, OK then.

  “Listen, Killian, I’d like us to get along.” That was the truth. More than that, I needed us to get along because we both loved Harrison. I wasn’t going anywhere and I certainly didn’t want Harrison to lose his brother over a mistake I’d made two years ago. It appeared Killian wasn’t holding Harrison's mistake against him so why should he with me? “How can I make this right?”

  He snorted as he hopped off the table and pulled his shirt over his head in one move. What a jackass.

  “Maybe don’t stand between my brother and opportunity,” he finally said. But that made no sense.

  What opportunity was I keeping Harrison from? None that he’d told me about.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked him, my patience with him running thin.

  We were alone in this room. There was no better time for him to just get this all out in the air.

  “France,” he said as if that meant anything.

  “France? What the hell does that mean?”

  An evil grin spread across his face. “Oh, Mr. Perfect didn’t tell you? Interesting…”

  “Killian don’t do this. You and I got along fine before. We can again. Just put the past behind us and let’s start over.”

  “That was then. Before you broke his heart.”

  “He broke mine, too,” I snapped. Killian didn’t know everything that had happened between us and honestly, he might’ve been looking out for his brother, but this wasn’t any of his business.

  “Well, you’re taking France from him.”

  I set my jaw and took a breath. “Explain France, please.”

  He stood back and stroked his chin like a Machiavellian villain. Like he had to think about whether he was going to tell me or not.

  “France is,” he began, sounding like he was talking to a child, “an opportunity that Harrison turned down without thinking about it because of you. He had the opportunity to go to France to finish up whatever the fuck he needs to for his master sommelier certification. That shit takes years and this would shave some of that time off.” He stepped closer until he was so close I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to. “We can get along if you don’t stand between Harrison and his dreams.”

  What the hell was he talking about? This was the first I was hearing about it and I teetered between him having flustered me and anger at the fact that I had no idea what he was talking about.

  “I’m not,” I said weakly.

  He cocked his head to the side and his mouth tilted up as if he knew more than me. “You sure about that?”

  Then he walked out the door without waiting for me to escort him back to the front.

  If Harrison had gotten an offer like that, why wouldn’t he have told me? I
wouldn’t stand in his way, but fuck, I couldn’t go to France for more than a visit.

  Was that why he’d turned it down?

  The only thing that kept racing through my brain no matter how hard I tried to stop it was—would he leave me for France again?

  Would long-distance work this time?

  The idea was less than appealing and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out how it would end.

  This was all bullshit and I knew it. That was my insecurity clawing its way to the top.

  What I should’ve been thinking about was that Harrison had gotten this offer at some point and hadn’t bothered to mention it to me.

  17

  Harrison

  The worst part about working evenings was knowing that Luna ate most of her dinners alone every night. Sometimes she’d go out with Jess and once in a while, she went to my parents’ without me. I loved my job, but that was a major drawback if I were being honest.

  We ate breakfast together every morning and dinner on Monday. Plus, she always tried to wait up for me to get home at night. Though that last thing I told her she didn’t have to do. If she was tired, she should go to sleep.

  She’d rarely ever taken me up on that offer.

  But she did tonight.

  When I came home, I was surprised that she wasn’t in the living room, where she normally was. After checking everywhere downstairs, I headed up. Her car was in the driveway, so she was here somewhere and the house wasn’t that big.

  I found her in the bedroom with the light off.

  Torn between waking her up to say goodnight and letting her sleep, I decided in the end to let her sleep. I needed a shower anyway.

  But when I came out, Luna was sitting up in bed not looking like she’d been sleeping just minutes before. I’d taken almost no time in the shower. If she’d been asleep when I’d passed through, I should’ve been able to see it now.

  “Hey, baby,” I said, running a hand down her silky soft hair and kissing her quickly. Though I did linger.

  “How was work?” The sound of her voice was off. Something wasn’t right here. This wasn’t a tired Luna, that was something else. She sounded more like she had the last time I’d spoken to her before we’d broken up.

  Not angry. Not even sad, really. Just off and maybe withdrawn. Overall not like my Luna.

  “It was fine. Busy.”

  “You’re always busy.”

  I nodded. There wasn’t much else I could do. We were always busy. “How are you?”

  “Fine.”

  Fuck that. Fine was never a good answer. I was no fool. Fine was a bad sign. The way women used the word fine was the first thing a guy learned about the other sex. If she said that, she was anything but fine.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her as I climbed onto the bed with her.

  “Nothing,” she muttered. I pinched her chin between my thumb and index finger to slowly pull her gaze to mine then raised an eyebrow. “It’s nothing,” she reiterated. “I promise.”

  “Out with it.”

  She sighed. The sound made me uneasy as my stomach sunk to my toes. “I’m just… overwhelmed.” Her eyes flitted away like she didn’t want to look me in the eyes. “With the wedding planning.”

  I didn’t believe that for one second but had no idea what to do about it. “It’s planned. It’s in three days. There’s nothing more to worry about.”

  “Right,” she said quickly, but she didn’t offer anything up. Whatever was going on with her, I wanted to know in detail. “It’s just a lot to do and today was fucking weird.”

  “Why was it weird?”

  He looked from me to the blanket in front of her and then back. “Your brother came in for a massage and it was awkward as hell.”

  “Fuck.” My heart stilled both in relief that it wasn’t something else and in fucking horror that she’d had to massage my brother. “Did he schedule with you or—”

  She cut me off. “With me.”

  “So you had to put your hands on my brother?” There wasn’t an ounce of jealousy. Not at all. But fuck, I didn’t like the idea of her rubbing her sweet, strong hands against his skin. Made my blood burn because that was something he’d do to throw her off and to pick at me.

  He and I were going to have a serious conversation.

  For the first time, a smile almost cracked her face. “That’s generally how massages work.”

  “Yeah, but your massages are hot as fuck, and the idea that he was the one receiving it kinda pisses me off. At him.”

  Now she giggled. “I don’t think it’s as hot for him as it is for you.”

  “It’s hot to everyone.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “We’ll have to agree to disagree,” I told her.

  The way it felt when Luna had her hands gliding over my muscles couldn’t compare to anything else. Now, though I’d never had a massage by someone else to compare it to, I’d maintain that any red-blooded hetero man would be turned on a little by her touch. And now I imagined the man being my brother. The fucker.

  “What did he want?” I asked her finally.

  She looked up at me with a scrunched-up face and said, “A massage.”

  Of course she’d say that.

  “How about this?” I started. “I go start the hot tub and we take a dip. I know it’s a little late, but—”

  “No. That would be perfect.”

  “You can relax a little.”

  She nodded, so I popped up and braved the cold air outside to get the hot tub started. We’d need like fifteen minutes before it was warm. Back upstairs, I found Luna wrapped up in one of the robes she’d bought for exactly this thing and her hair was up in a bun so it wouldn’t get soaking wet down there.

  After I bought her the hot tub, she’d come up with a list of accessories that she’d thought we’d needed. We’d gotten it all the next week. A robe for each of us. A couple of extra for guests and some huge bath sheets in case the robes weren’t’ available. We kept the towels in the linen closet in the bathroom and the robes in our closet.

  I grabbed the other robe and we headed downstairs. First, we stopped in the kitchen for a drink. Once we finished our water, I figured it’d been long enough and we headed outside.

  Inside the tent, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.

  Luna pulled the robe apart and let it slide down her surprisingly naked body. I’d figured she was wearing a bikini under there, but fuck. This was better.

  In record time, I tore off my robe as she slowly got into the warm water and pushed my boxers down so that I too was naked and already getting fucking hard.

  The water was perfect as I slid in beside her. Not wanting to jump in too quickly, I pulled Luna against my side and let the hot water relax her as I ran my hands over her skin. My massages were shitty at best compared to hers but she still groaned when I hit the right spot. I was learning though I was about to relax her even more.

  “Luna,” I whispered.

  She moved to straddle me and it took everything in my power not to slip right inside her. It wasn’t time yet but I was already rock hard.

  With her legs on either side of my hips, Luna braced herself on my shoulders. We kissed as if we had all of the time in the world and we did. My tongue stroked hers and the tent filled with the sounds of our desire. Gasps when I touched her in the right place. Groans when she ground against me. I rubbed circles on her clit, which was almost as hard as I was.

  “Harrison,” she whispered back and that shot straight to my dick.

  Tonight was going to be different.

  Usually, I got her off before going any further, but that didn’t seem to be what she wanted tonight.

  I lifted my girl to hover above my dick, which was standing straight up. Slowly, I lowered her, impaling her with one movement. Her head fell back, her tits floating in front of her. I couldn’t be expected to control myself in this situation. I pulled a nipple into my mouth. She tasted like Luna and
chlorine.

  She rolled her hips then lifted herself up before dropping back down. Damn, she was tight. Like her pussy was hugging me and didn’t want to let go. I reached my hand back between us to help her come. She needed to do that before I could let myself go.

  Finally, she tightened around me, her moans becoming louder, yet not loud enough for the neighbors to hear. Not that I would’ve cared if they did hear.

  Whatever my girl needed to do to get where she needed to go, I was all for it.

  When her muscles stopped contracting, there was a moment of pause before she began moving again. Riding me until I was over the edge. We sat there for several heartbeats before she moved off of me and damn, I didn’t want her to.

  Reaching over, I brushed across her flushed skin and kissed her again.

  “Relaxed?”

  She opened her eyes, but just barely. “Very,” she muttered, which brought a smile to my face.

  Sex with Luna was far from a hardship. If I could do that all day long and still pay my bills, I gladly would. But the fact that this was something only I shared with her… that was fucking priceless.

  Once she said she thought she could walk again, we got out and I shut the tub down. This was the best purchase I’d ever made. We hurried back inside due to the cold and headed upstairs. I made sure to lock everything up along the way.

  A quick shower and a pair of pajamas later, we were snuggled into bed and I would’ve sworn that Luna fell asleep before I turned out the light.

  The morning promised to be better for her. I hoped but I still wanted to know what had been going through her head when I got home. I didn’t miss the fact that she hadn’t wanted to talk about it and used sex to distract me. Worked every single time.

  And yet she was unusually quiet when we went down for breakfast. She didn’t begin any conversation and answered my attempt to start one with one-word answers.

  “Everything all right?” I finally asked her.

  “Fine,” she said back, and damn, I knew what that meant.

  She wasn’t fine at all and just didn’t want to talk to me about it.